Release Date: November 21st, 2003 (wide)
Production Company: State Street Pictures (Men of Honor, Barbershop), Cube Vision (Taxi, Friday After Next; this is Ice Cube's company)
Cast: Ice Cube (Calvin Palmer) (in talks), Cedric the Entertainer (Eddie); other cast not announced yet.
Cast Notes: (1/15/03) It's likely that most of the cast from the first film will probably return for the sequel, but thus far, only Ice Cube has been confirmed. Among that original cast were Anthony Anderson, Keith David, Cedric the Entertainer, Michael Ealy, Eve, Troy Garity, Leonard Earl Howze and Sean Patrick Thomas.
Director: Tim Story (Barbershop; his first two films, The Firing Squad and One of Us Tripped went direct-to-video)
Director Notes: (2/3/03) On January 24th, "The Hollywood Reporter" broke the news that Tim Story has signed on to direct a project called 'Date School' for DreamWorks, with filming tentatively expected to start sometime this spring, 2003... exactly when he was expected to be working on this sequel. Might this mean he's not going to be directing this sequel after all, or just that it's going to be delayed, and not make MGM's December, 2003 release date. (2/17/03) "Variety" confirms that Tim Story will be filming this sequel first before 'Date School', pending MGM's signing of the rest of the cast besides Cedric the Entertainer.
Screenwriter: Don D. Scott (cowriter of Barbershop)
Based Upon: This is the sequel to MGM's surprise 2002 urban comedy hit, Barbershop, which ended up making $75 million in the U.S. (which is pretty good, considering it only cost $12 million to make).
Premise: This is another comedic tale about the lives of a group of (mostly) African-American barbers at a barbershop in Chicago's South Side, owned by earnest Calvin (Ice Cube), carrying on the family business. The exact details of what this sequel is about aren't known yet (as of 1/16/03). Always eager to expand new franchises (ie, something other than James Bond and Legally Blonde), MGM is moving extremely quickly to get this sequel in theaters just 14 months after the release of the first.
Premise Notes: (1/16/03) This is just a *guess*, but having seen the first film, my first, best hunch about what a sequel might be about has to do with how guy-heavy the first film was. Perhaps the sequel will follow the character played by Eve starting up her own business, a beauty parlor that competes with the barbershop? Like I say, I have no idea if this is what the film is really about... but if *I* was writing the sequel, that's what I'd go for.
This franchise needs a lot more girls.
Queen Latifah's company will produce Beautyshop. It's set to film at the same time as Barbershop 2. The beauty shop will be located next to the barbershop.
My second guess, given the pre-Thanksgiving release date is that the story might have something to do with Christmas.
Filming: Production is scheduled to start in May, 2003 in Chicago, to make the November, 2003 release date. The original film's budget was $12 million. This sequel's budget will probably be in that range as well, if just maybe a bit more (ie, I would guess something like $15-$20 million).
Genre: African-American, Comedy, Sequel
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